Red Rocks is a popular spot for exercising, but the city of Denver will be closing it for one hour and 45 minutes on popular weekend mornings throughout the summer for a private health event. Denver Post file photo by Cyrus McCrimmon

Fitness junkies are used to having relatively open access to Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s many steps and benches for morning workouts, but the city of Denver just announced a private fitness program that will close the amphitheater to the non-paying public for more than an hour once each week, starting this Saturday.

The HealthOne Red Rocks Fitness Challenge will close the popular mountain amphitheater once a week, mostly on Saturday mornings between 7 and 8 a.m. The event costs participants $150 for the season and provides them with personal trainers (assigned to groups), medical experts and workout regimens, according to Red Rocks’ website.

But as the website also points out, Red Rocks sees more than 500,000 visitors each year who specifically head to Morrison for the fitness scene – hiking, biking, running and training in and around the storied space.

Denver-based personal trainer Christopher Flower is one of those people, and he’s not pleased that the city-owned, open-to-the-public venue will be closed during such busy hours.

“Saturday mornings are prime time for anyone, not just trainers, who wants to go up there for a workout,” Flower said earlier today. “Red Rocks is so great because it doesn’t have to be extreme fitness. A hike, a walk, a run – all of that’s great, and cutting into our time up there on a Saturday or Sunday morning, when people don’t have to work, that’s just too bad. I hate to hear that.”

The city hasn’t heard much push-back from the community, according to Kristin Rust, the communications and marketing director for Arts & Venues Denver, the city agency which operates Red Rocks.

“We’re doing all we can to get the word out so people can plan,” Rust said via email. “We tried to keep it quite early, (because) it is very popular around 8 a.m.”

Early-rising non-participants will be asked to clear themselves from Red Rocks at 6:30 a.m. on the specified days, Rust said. The venue’s top entrance will be the only open gate between 6:30 and 8:10 a.m. on those days, and participants in the HealthOne Red Rocks Fitness Challenge will check in with their wristbands. Non-participants will be allowed into the park after 8:10 a.m.

If the park is closed for one hour and 40 minutes on those valuable mornings, it’s not good news for locals looking for a workout, said Flower.

“When I do (Red Rocks) personally, I run criterions around the top of the amphitheatre, and then I run down the actual driveway and finish by coming back up the steps,” said Flower, who trains his clients at Form Personal Training at 3rd Avenue and Kalamath Street. “When I’m doing my thing, I see all kinds of people utilizing the seats and the steps. It’s crawling with people doing their own thing, especially on Saturdays, which is the hottest day there.

“I’ve run boot camps at Wash Park, and at any one time that I’ve been there, there are other trainers doing their thing. But we all respect each other and give each other their space. A good trainer would be able to work around other people, but they likely want that guaranteed space – but it’s too bad that it takes away opportunities from other people and that it takes away that amazing space.”

The dates and times for Red Rocks’ closings this summer (and keep in mind that 7-8 a.m. is more like 6:30-8:10 a.m.):

I don’t like the idea of closing it entirely to the public at the best time of the week to be up there. Bad decision. I would think they could work around people just like everyone else does but it’s about money I guess. Very disappointing.

More people just looking for a reason to complain in my opinion. I’ve been to red rocks at 7 am on a Saturday…I don’t see how this will affect more then 10 people tops. The trails and space around the theatre will still be open…it’s just the actual theatre that will be closed for 1 hour. The amount of people this is benefiting (i.e. people who signed up who don’t yet have the confidence to go workout on their own in front of other fitness finatics) will far outweight the 10 – 20 fitness buffs who get there early on a saturday morning. The impact is minimal in the grand scheme of things.

Denver Parks owns and runs Red Rocks, Denver Parks and Rec is one of the people putting on this event.

This has got to be the worst decision that Red Rocks and the Denver Parks Department has ever made. I am extremely angry and upset by this stupid and greedy decision. What part of “city-owned, open-to-the-public” don’t they understand? I’ve personally been running the stairs at Red Rocks for the past 15 years and I really enjoy my early morning workouts without having to pay a fee. One of the great things about Red Rocks is that it’s free to the public to exercise. I see many people (sometimes 200 plus people) working out between 7:00am and 8:00am on Saturdays, it’s a beatiful thing. Everyone can do there own thing and go at their own pace. Someone always has to destroy a good, healthy, positive thing! Nothing like taking a 50 or 60 tradition of free exercise and ruining it by trying to make a buck. Thanks Denver Parks Department! Thanks for taking away my early morning workouts on Saturdays and my opportunity to enjoy a fun, free and healthy activity.

Americans are very unhealthy and overweight and by charging a fee to exercise is just yet another reason for people NOT to exercise. I hope someone in the Denver Parks Department will realize what a bad decision this is and open it back up to the public to anyone that wants to exercie FREE OF CHARGE!

Travel and OutWest editor Kyle Wagner grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Lake County, Ill., and Naples, Fla., before moving to Denver in 1993, where she reviewed restaurants for Westword before moving to The Denver Post in 2002. She considers the best days to be those that involve her teenage daughters and doing something outside, preferably mountain biking or whitewater rafting.

Dean Krakel is a photo editor (primarily sports) at The Denver Post. A native of Wyoming, he has authored three books, "Season of the Elk," "Downriver" and "Krakel's West." An avid kayaker, rafter, mountain biker, trail runner, telemark skier and backpacker, Dean's outdoor adventures have taken him around the world.

Douglas Brown was raised about 30 miles west of Philadelphia in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he spent a lot of time running around in the woods and fields (where he hunted and explored), and in the ocean (where he surfed and stared at the horizon). Now he lives in Boulder and spends as much time hiking, running, skiing and boarding the High Country (and the Boulder foothills) as possible.

Ricardo Baca is the entertainment editor and pop music critic at The Denver Post, as well as the founder and executive editor of Reverb and the co-founder of The UMS. Happy days often involve at least one of these: whitewater rafting, snowshoeing, vintage Vespas, writing, camping, live music, road trips, snowboarding or four-wheeling.